The most important thing to know when answering a question in any class, in any subject, Leland Pillsbury '69 said, is always, "It depends." Why? Because constantly questioning what has been learned is the true mark of an entrepreneur.

Pillsbury's talk, "The Entrepreneurial State of Mind," presented in Statler Auditorium, April 13, was the keynote address of the 82nd Hotel Ezra Cornell, the annual student-run hospitality conference. With the theme of "Sustainability Through Innovation," this year's event was aimed at challenging hospitality leaders to balance economic growth with environmental protection. In his talk, Pillsbury, chairman and CEO of the venture fund Thayer Lodging Group and founder of several other businesses, focused on the characteristics of entrepreneurial leaders and his vision of developing these qualities in Cornell students.

More than three decades ago, Pillsbury's father helped build the foundation of the Alice Statler Hotel as a construction manager for Cornell. Last fall Pillsbury committed to laying another sort of foundation at Cornell: He announced a donation of $15 million to the School of Hotel Administration -- the school's largest-ever single donation and one of the largest gifts in hospitality management -- to endow the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship to help students think about hospitality management in more innovative ways.

An entrepreneurial education, he said, "provides individuals with the concepts and skills to recognize opportunities that others have overlooked and to act where others have hesitated."

Entrepreneurs, Pillsbury said, are passionate, persuasive, collaborative people driven by a desire to work and achieve. Recalling his own experiences, Pillsbury noted that "students of the unknown," those who thrive in risky and uncertain environments, are usually the most likely to be successful in the field. His goal in endowing the Pillsbury Institute, he said, is to "build a collaborative, experiential learning program that helps to nurture" such students.

He described the three main purposes of the institute -- to develop an academic curriculum in entrepreneurship, to create a direct link between students and leading entrepreneurs and to create a real-world environment for students to practice and develop vital skills.

Pillsbury encouraged all Cornell alumni to give back to Cornell in any way they could, saying that "nurturing innovation in the generations to follow is essential for the world's economic future." Pillsbury, who grew up in Ithaca, financed his education through scholarships and work. In his address, he noted that more donations are needed to fund scholarships and foster excellence at his alma mater.

Chandni Navalkha '10 is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.